Transcript of an interview I recorded with NICK HOLMES of PARADISE LOST - 20200414. Full article here. MAL-
Chatting to Nick Holmes from PARADISE LOST. Nick, thanks for taking my call. NICK- Cheers. Yeah. Nice to meet you too. Thanks. MAL- It's good to chat here. Hey, now, back 1990 I was hosting a heavy metal show here in Adelaide. And actually remember playing stuff off 'Lost Paradise'. NICK- Right, Yeah, I think yes, 30 years anniversary around now. MAL- What do you remember from that time? NICK- Oh, it's not massively dissimilar to now really, you know, I mean, there was a lot more kind of going out drinking than there is now, particularly now. So yeah, it's, it was a great time you know, we were young kids playing music we loved you know, it was everything was about music. Everything we did was about music from the minute we we went to bed to the minute we got out of bed. It was all heavy metal, heavy metal, everything. So yeah, it was good time. MAL- Got a new album coming out very soon. We'll get to that in a moment. But 32 years now, with the exception of one position in the band, you've had a stable lineup for that long. That's just amazing. NICK- Yeah, I mean, well we started the band as friends, you know, we were all we were all kind of guys hanging out into the same music, you know, we hope to, from a mutual love it of the music that we're into was very sort of humble beginnings. So, we put the band together because we were so passionate about it, you know, and it's also we have a good, you know, we have a good laugh, you know, we have a lot of fun together, you know, so it's, I guess, you know, it was a pretty good combination for more of a long term type thing, you know, I mean, there's ups and downs in everything in life, but uh, you know, drummers aside, it's been quite, you know, it's been pretty consistent. Really. MAL- Speaking of drummers, how's the new guy (in air quotes) How's the new guy working out for you? NICK- He's great. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's his youngest. He's only 25, we have children older than he is yeah he's no he's working out great. Yeah, he's been in a few years now and he but he lives in Helsinki but you know, it doesn't really matter these days, it's you know, file sharing, etc etc he doesn't have to kind of live in the next house. So, ya know, Walter is a brilliant drummer, he's incredibly versatile. And for his age is incorrect. You know, he's such a confident quality player for his age, you know, I think he's got a big career ahead of him you know? MAL- Okay, three years since the previous album, which is about right these days. How did that album go for you? NICK- Really good. I mean, it's the time seems to fly when you when you start doing you know, you release the album, do promotion, then release it. Then you tour it for you know, depending on how many times you've got to America that usually takes a lot of time. I think we went once on the last albu. Yes, it takes about three years before you know you're back again waiting to do another one. It goes incredibly fast. It's hard to explain how fast it goes because it's like the blink of an eye, it really is. MAL- Tell me about it. Did you have any time off between the the end of the touring cycle and starting on the new album? NICK- Yes. I mean, if you're doing summer festivals, you don't stay out on the road for the whole week, you kind of fly in on the Friday and maybe go home on the Monday so if you're doing one every weekend, you know you've got time at home in between there you got a few days here and there. I think we did maybe a seven week Tour, which was a long tour Actually, we thought of maybe thinking about doing that in two halves in the future, we'll see how it goes. But um, but yeah, it's I mean, you'd get a lot of time at home in between, it's not like solid blocks away for months and months and months, you know, so it's, you know, you can always get back home. So, MAL- Tell us about the new album. It's called 'Obsidian' coming out on the 15th of May. When did we start getting into album mode. NICK- We started recording in I think it was November, then December. So it was probably the beginning of the year last year, we started writing it. So it takes about 10 months, nine to 10 months to write this album. But yeah, it was pretty much we get told when they they're looking at doing another album then we sort of work to that as kind of deadline time kind of affair. So, but yeah, we just always use the last album as a, as a kind of benchmark and as to where we're going to go from you know, when the next one, start writing and see where we see where we end up. You know, MAL- Now, you mentioned Helsinki and file sharing. Was that how this album was recorded? Was he over there, you guys were all elsewhere? How did it go? NICK- No, he flew over to record it, but as far as writing goes, Yeah, I mean, Greg Macintosh and myself, write the songs and we bounce them backwards and forwards and everything's kind of done via you know, the sort of we meet up when we play live or we rehearse you know, we don't meet up any other time. We don't live anywhere near each other. So it's, you know, it's not like we can kind of pop around to each other's houses or anything. So yeah, it's the file sharing sort of techniques. It's something we've done for the last probably 15 years I think maybe longer than that now. MAL- The first track 'Darker Thoughts' started the album off in a different way than I was expecting, caught me a bit off guard, but that's my favourite track from the album. Tell us about your favourites, tell us about the whole album, how did you go? Stories behind the songs? NICK- I mean, that song came about quite quite spontaneous. I mean, a lot of the songs you can bounce them backwards and forwards for for days or even weeks, and they just don't gel and eventually they do but that one was originally, 'Darker Thoughts' was originally going to be an intro cos Greg wrote the acoustic part of the beginning. And it was just going to be an intro. And then I actually came up with a melody line for it. And then we kind of build on that to the second half of the song where it goes heavier. And then it was known as quite spontaneous and we both agreed on everything right from the word go. It was quite nice, andit was one of the last songs we wrote as well. So it came together really well. And, like you say, I think starts is quite a different way of starting an album for us. So that's another reason why it's probably one of my favourite songs as well, in that regard. And then, I mean, song 'Fall From Grace' is the second song that was the first song we wrote for the entire album, and it's very reminiscent of the last album, I'd say, it could have been on the 'Medusa' album perhaps. But again, we decided to release it the first single because it's very typical kind of very heavy PARADISE LOST type vibe to it and, you know, kind of represents the new album quite well, I think, even though it's quite an eclectic album overall, I think, you know. MAL- Indeed it is. Now, these are very strange times that we're living in, has what's going on at the moment, has that affected the band in any way directly? NICK- I mean, it's the same with everybody. I mean, it's the live situation because nobody knows when we're going to be out there playing live again. You know, I mean, you know, if I was being pessimistic, I'd say 2021, which is what I keep hearing off some of my friends in other bands. But, uh, you know, we're sort of aiming at September. I mean, as soon as you know, we can do it, we'll we'll be out there and the same with everyone, I guess. I don't think waiting to release albums is necessary. I think you know, we're still releasing on the 15th of May this year. I mean, I don't see the point in delaying that, you know, people are at home they can listen to the album they can they can get into it and play it as long as they have electricity, there's nothing to stop that happening. But playing live is Yeah, it's a problem for everyone at the moment, but I think once, everyone's on pause and once the pause button's pressed again. I think everyone's gonna be going crazy for live music and I think it's gonna be mad out there. MAL- All touring plans are off at this stage? I've been speaking to some bands and they've started to get things ready for the end of the year. I mean, whether that's a bit presumptuous or not only time will tell. NICK- Yeah, I mean, I think you've got to set yourself some goals just to try and be positive about it. You know, I just think 'God, let's just forget it till next year'. I don't think that's helpful particularly, it's not helpful for any of us. I mean, we're looking at playing, we're doing like a launch gig even though it's six months after the launch, but we're looking at a launch gig in Leeds, which is close to our hometown in UK on the 17th of September. So that's, whether we will play before that, I don't know. But it's, but yeah, I mean, festivals are dropping off all the time. You know, we've lost probably about eight shows already. Potentially obvious, but it's the same for everyone. You know, it's just a it's a pretty it's just a shit state of affairss you know. MAL- You mentioned the first single 'Fall From Grace', what's planned next in that regard? NICK- Um, this is a toss up between two songs. I mean, we're trying to kind of do a video when we're even doing a video is because you can't go outside so it's kind of well, you know, other than going for necessary reasons. So yeah, we're trying to kind of get a video get from footage we've got from other things in the past So yeah, that's the next thing but we're not even sure which which video we're going to we're going to do as a video yet so probably not a great deal I can say about that to be honest. MAL- Are you in full lockdown over there? NICK- Not hundred percent but it's it's kind of frowned upon if you're seen driving around you know i mean we can go out to the shops and get essential supplies and but if you're kind of on the on the main road in your car people are kind of giving you strange looks and yeah, it's not full lockdown, but it's it's definitely a lot quieter. That's for sure. MAL- Yeah, just amazing isn't it? NICK- Yeah, I mean, I live quite rural right where I am. So it's quite a quiet area anywhere but I haven't been at the city since any of this ed. So I have no idea what it's gonna be like there. But But yeah, this December. All the car parks. They've kind of cordoned them off and things so you can't go you know, stops the day trippers coming over and things so so yeah. MAL- How important was it getting on Nuclear Blast? NICK- It's great. I mean, you know, everyone that works there. They're enthusiastic, they're into the bands that we're working with, it's a very rock metal label, which is I think it's very important for, you know, if you're a metal band to be on a metal label, the people that are, you know, working on the stuff that actually into the music they're working with. So yeah, it's been great. I mean, it was great with Century Media as well, you know, likewise, there was still a great group of people. But, you know, we just moved on a nuclear blast now. So, MAL- Because you've label-hopped a bit over two years, haven't you? NICK- Yeah, we've been, you know, we've always been quite looking at that. We've, we've always been able to do our own sort of thing. We haven't been told what sort of music we should be doing or anything. We've always been quite quite lucky in that respect. You know, we've been fortunate to work with a lot of really good people at labels. You know, we started Peaceville Records. Yeah, we've had a few changes here and there in between, EMI is another one we were on for a while, which was a bit weird, but uh, the last kind of 15-20 years has been has been great, you know, label wise. MAL- Just been talking to Nick from PARADISE LOST. They've got a new album 'Obsidian', coming out on the 15th of May. So great to talk to you, Nick. Thanks for your time. NICK- Yeah, cheers, man. Nice to speak to you. Thanks a lot. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |